I have a 7 year old!

My goodness.... that just seems so mad to me!  Mad that I've had the best job in the world for 7 years, mad that I'm old enough to have a 7 yr old child and mad that that much time past that quickly!

Caden is absolutely lovely and I love him to pieces.  He came into this world at 10:55am on the 2 of August 2004 after a looong labour at 36 weeks gestation.  We didn't know what the sex of our baby would be and I can tell you I was absolutely over the moon chuffed to have a son!  I came from a family of 5 girls you see, so having a boy seemed quite an achievement! ;)  The other side of that coin of course was, what on earth do you do with a boy ?   :)

Caden is very loving and he fills my heart with joy for his love of God's word.  He has genuine compassion for the hurting people around the world and I look forward to see how God is going to use this special heart he has placed within my son in the future.  Caden's hobbies currently included: dressing up, nature (bugs, birds & leaves seem of particular interest), drama & dancing, computer games and lately he has just gotten into chess.

To celebrate the 7 years we have been blessed with his life we had a 'splashing' birthday party for him on saturday the 30th.  He had several mates over and we filled the family sized paddling pool.  We put on some fun games, including water balloon volley ball, a treasure hunt and who can make the biggest splash!  It was a lot of fun and we were so, so blessed with the weather - the sun came out from behind those clouds just as the party started!  :)

Caden is very much into castles, soldiers & knights so I made him a castle cake for his birthday.... it ended up being a bigger task than I had anticipated, but at 1 am the night before the party I got it done - 'phew'!

He blew those candles out all in one go!  :O)

His special day continued with yet more excitement when Nanny and Grampy arrived!  After the party had finished and party bags had been handed out we threw down the picnic rug, on the rather now damp grass thanks to the water balloon volley ball, and set out a pile of pressies for birthday boy to open in the glorious sun shine.  There was much excitement on Daddy and my part as we couldn't wait for him to open his pressie from us!  :O)  It had only just arrived in time (very delayed)... a few hours before the party!  I had quickly run inside with the box and wrapped it up before Daddy even got a look at it.
I'm not really sure if this pressie had been picked for Caden or for Daddy!  :O)

So what was it ?

Today Caden has had much excitement playing with his new things and picking up the mail to find that ALL the post was for him!  :O)  He is currently setting up a game of chess for me to play with him...  so I'm off to play!

Long time

It has been a long time since I posted. I never meant to go so long without so much as a peep.

A lot has happened in the last little while. Our family had a wonderful holiday at the end of July down in beautiful Bude, Son 1 turned 6 years old!, I made it to full term and gave birth to a beautiful little girl, born on her due date and we celebrated 4th sons first birthday. So much to update you all on!

First Son's 6th Birthday:

Son 1 enjoyed having a friend over for a trip to a theme park and to stay the night as his birthday treat.. they enjoyed the wii and sleeping in tents:

Baby girl was born:

All my boys were born early so I was very surprised to make it all the way to 40 weeks. I went into labour on Saturday the 18th of September in the evening. I laboured all through the night, but the contractions remained 10-20 minutes apart, despite getting quite strong. When I got up in the morning I expected the contractions to get closer together, but much to my surprise and great disappointment the labour stopped. I was so confused and quite emotional.. I was feeling quite desperate for this baby to be born (was over tired after not getting much sleep). It was only 4 days until Son 4's birthday and I was desperate for this baby not to share that date. God knew this was important to me and I just had to leave it with Him. After having a good old cry to God about it all I rested all morning trying to recover from the night. Husband took the boys off to church and then out for a picnic lunch afterwards to give me as much rest as possible. I started to have the odd contraction again, but didn't want to put any hope on it going anywhere. They were very irregular although picking up in intensity. Later that afternoon I decided a good old walk was in order.. so we went out as a family. Was lovely. I'm not sure if it helped or not.. things didn't really change for a while, but by 6pm that evening the contractions all of a sudden started to come every 5 mins. I started to get excited that this would be it this time. I called into the maternity ward to let them know I'd need a midwife soon and that I was booked for a home birth. Unfortunately for me though there were no midwives available to attend my home birth. The boys were in bed by now and the contractions were getting quite strong. I asked husband to put on my TENs machine, got the fire going and lit some candles. I REALLY wanted to stay at home. I had my birth pool on hand and desperately didn't want a car journey at this stage of labour. Things were moving quickly now. I told the midwife coordinator that I'd wait an hour and see if the situation changed regarding availability of midwives... I didn't have that long to wait though.. only minutes later I looked at husband told him that we had to go. I was very fortunate to have a midwife friend on call especially for me and because of that I was able to go to a birth centre instead of the main hospital! My friend went straight to the birth centre to get the pool ready for me and husband and I made a move as soon as my parents arrived to look after the boys. The journey was pretty awful, but we got there in 15 minutes and I couldn't get into that lovely hot pool soon enough. Transition occurred shortly after entering the pool. It was so strong and so powerful. I started on the gas and air, I knew it wouldn't be long now. It was just 2 hours after arriving at the birth centre that my precious little girl swam into my arms. She was born posterior, in her sac (born in the caul) on her due date!!

It was one of the most wonderful moments of my life!

Overwhelmingly blessed!

My sweet little girl weighed in at 6lbs 8oz and was born at 11:53pm on the 19th of September

Active labour in the comfort of my own home

Just arrived at the birth centre

BP check

I got very hot and felt soothed by a cold flannel

Transition

Well.. this picture speaks for itself!

It's a GIRL!!!

6lbs 8oz

We did it! :O)

I am SO thankful to have my precious daughter safely in my arms and to have the pregnancy behind me. It was an emotional & long journey! My sweet little girl is now already 2 weeks old.. time is flying past! I'm savouring every second - I love having a newborn in the house. Her big brothers absolutely adore her and regularly come and check on her and give her kisses and cuddles. :O) This is a very happy time for us. God is so good!

4th Sons Birthday:

God heard my cry and I delivered my 5th child on a different date to my 4th sons birthday. Baby girl was only 4 days old, but we managed to make it to his grave and bought some balloons in celebration of his short life. It was day of many tears for me, but it was beautiful in its own way. Here are a few pictures of that special day:

Dearest little boy - you hold a very special place in my heart!

And that just about brings us up to date.

I was privileged to have my sister, a professional photographer, at the birth of my daughter. Once all the photos have been edited I plan on putting them together in a 'photo movie' I will share this once it is done.

Have a blessed day!

My baby is 3!

My youngest turned 3 yesterday!

Where does the time go??

It seems only a few months ago I was in that bath tub, holding my precious newborn baby boy bundle!

Born at 2:15 pm on the 28th of May 2007

He was such a cute newborn!

My hands were full after his birth as I was now juggling 3 little boys all under the age of 3. It was wonderful though and I loved having them all so close. It was undeniably hard work, but SO rewarding. When our new arrival was 2 weeks old - I took the boys to the mall to get a picture of the 3 of them as a surprise for Fathers Day.

Goodness they were all so little!

What a difference 3 years makes! Back then I had 3 in nappies and now they can all take themselves to the loo. (Yay!) Then.. my eldest was younger than my youngest is now! (Yikes)

Our precious 3rd son has given us so much love and happiness... and concern!! From early on he was a poor eater, which a lot of mums have to deal with. Our little chap dropped off the weight chart by quite a bit and he was so skinny. The doctor had us putting butter or oil in the small amount of food he did eat, just to try and plump him up a bit! The difficulties feeding him was nothing though compared with the concern he gave us when we were on holiday in Florida. It was a lovely holiday.. until that awful day.. we thought he was just dehydrated and that rest and fluid would sort him out, but when his nappy was filled with blood, we knew it was something more. We rushed off to the ER, with no idea how seriously ill our little 10 month old was. He was limp - felt lifeless. Was the worst feeling a mother could feel - a limp child. He was his happy, usual self the day before.. what had happened?

He had a severe case of intussusception, which is when part the bowl flips in on itself and blocks up the system. The doctors tried treating him with a barium treatment - which was the most awful thing to watch - it absolutely broke my heart to see my little boy in so much pain, and for it then to not work - I was a mess. The doctor then had to decide to operate straight away. If he didn't have surgery he would have died within a day or 2.

While he was in surgery, I was sitting in a waiting room, surrounded by comforting pictures of Jesus. God brought to mind the amazing song - blessed be your name by Matt Redman - which during the chorus says, 'He gives and takes away'. I was more or less in continuous prayer and kept telling God that I didn't want him to take my sweet boy away, but that if that was His will, I would accept it. I was thanking Him for the time I had already been blessed with with my precious baby. While I was waiting, I really didn't know what God had in store for us, but I trusted Him, whatever the outcome.

Praise God, he lived!

This picture was taken a few days after his surgery. He recovered remarkably well and is left with no long term problems. I'm sure he'll be quite proud of his scar when he's a bit older. :O)

And now we are 2 years on from that scary week and our little fighter is a very, very happy and a very healthy little boy! I couldn't be more thankful for his life or for the life of my other boys. We don't know how long we have with our children and although it isn't always easy, I intend to make the most of every moment, the best way I possibly can. Children are such a blessing, and I love being mummy, especially on celebratory occasions such as birthdays!

Love you baby boy!